Strength and Courage
by ReadtheBooks
Summary: It occurred to Lucy two weeks after the guild disbanded, and one week after the last guild member, Cana, left Magnolia. Aquarius wasn't going to magically reappear- and neither was Natsu. If she wanted to see her friend again, she'd have to do it herself
1. Chapter 1

Strength and Courage

**Chapter 1:**

She was a mess.

Her hair looked like a rats nest, and her eyes were so red from crying that it looked like she was possessed. The guild had disbanded two weeks ago out of nowhere, and her fairy tail family had left just as quickly, Cana being the last one to leave.

After waving her off, Lucy had gone home and hadn't come back out until basic human needs, like food and water made her. Why would she? The only family she had just disappeared into thin air.

To all that saw her, it looked like she was grieving a lost one, and Lucy didn't bother correcting them.

It was true enough.

But looking at herself in the mirror now, a small tendril of… something gripped her.

Shame.

Lucy had prided herself on being optimistic. Bad things might happen, but they couldn't last forever. Sooner or later the sun would shine through the clouds. So in the past, she had held her head high and worked towards fixing the problem.

But here she was, looking half-dead after crying so much that even Juvia wouldn't be able to rival her. All her friends had left to go train so they could protect the people they love.

But not her.

And wasn't that her problem? Even as a Fairy Tail wizard, she had always had to be saved. By Natsu, or Gray, or even Erza. And she had never thought that was a problem. Because although she didn't offer much to the team in terms of raw power, she knew that her intelligence would be missed if she left.

(Sorry, Natsu. But it was the truth…)

But intelligence didn't cut it when Aquarius sacrificed herself so that Lucy could live, did it? In the end, she wasn't strong enough to save her first friend, the one who was with her when her mum died, when her father refused to have anything to do with her. Lucy couldn't save her.

The broken key still hung on her key chain.

But.

_Maybe she could do something?_

The half buried memory came to Lucy as she slowly brushed her hair, throughly disgusted with herself for letting it get this _gross_. With each knot that came untangled (and there were a lot- a disadvantage of long hair) an idea grew, and with it her resolve.

Grabbing her key chain off her bedside table, she unhooked two keys, one gold and one silver before hesitating and then grabbing a much, much shorter gold key.

Squeezing the short gold key in her hand and ignoring the uncomfortable jagged edge, Lucy cleared her throat.

"Open, gate of the lion! Leo!"

A familiar and comforting gold cloud appeared, and before she could even begin to address him, he lunged at her.

For a breathtaking millisecond, she thought he was angry about Aquarius, but her fears were soon put to rest as the lion pulled her into a massive hug.

After quickly giving her check over (which made her self conscious of her ratty clothes) Loke grinned at her. "Finally! I was beginning to get worried that you had forgotten about us. I was almost ready to check up on you with my own power, but Virgo said to give you some time to… process things."

Lucy managed a small, wobbly smile at her friend. "Sorry. I've been… preoccupied."

_With crying my eyes out uselessly._

Before he could say anything, she took a deep breath. The broken key in her hand seemed to dig into her skin.

"How's Aquarius?"

The leader of the zodiac rolled his eyes. "As fine as you'd expect. She's happy that none of her dates will be interrupted anymore."

He hesitated, "Though she does have a message for you, though."

The blonde looked up from where she had been studying the ground.

"Really?"

"Yeah. She wanted me to tell you that…"

The lion paused dramatically.

"You better not call Scorpio often on dates, otherwise, and I quote 'she would find away to get here and kill you herself'"

Lucy stared at the celestial spirit in shock, before laughing then going silent, considering the words.

"If only…"

Loke sighed. The laughter was nice while it lasted but.

"You know she isn't dead, right? And even if she was-though she isn't- it wouldn't be your fault in the slightest. You did what you had to do, and even summoned three sprints at once!"

The mage turned away, and Loke narrowed his eyes at her before deciding that they had gone far enough with that topic today.

"Enough of this sad business! What can I do for you today, my princess? And may I say you look beautiful today!"

Lucy relaxed slightly. An over flirtatious lion she could deal with. This, at least was normal.

"Cut it with the flirting. I thought that was what you had Aries for? And, well." She took a calming breath. "What happens to a key after it breaks?"

Loke spluttered, a small blush on his face before recovering dramatically.

"No- one, be it human or spirit could ever compare to you my princess! And… after a key breaks, the Celestial Spirit King forges a new one and drops it somewhere on Earthland."

Lucy nodded. What Loke said matched up with the distant memory of her mother telling her about it.

Still. This meant it was possible to make up for not saving Aquarius and to get her friend back!

"Do you know anything else? What about where Moustache Face dropped it?"

Loke groaned. "I'd really appreciate it if you stopped calling our leader and the most powerful spirit in the realm 'Moustache Face'. Even if he does like you, it still makes me nervous."

"And I'm sorry. I don't know where the key would be, though most likely it would be near or in a body of water."

Lucy nodded, choosing not to acknowledge his earlier comment. That was more helpful than what she was expecting. And thankfully, she had a spirit which specialised in knowing everything to do with celestial spirits.

Loke raised an eyebrow at her determined face, before his eyes widened in realisation as she summoned the silver key she had in hand.

"Open, gate of the southern cross! Crux!"

With a puff of silver smoke, a old spirit that seemed to be sleeping in the air with his legs crossed appeared. His head was shaped like a cross and he had a white moustache.

Walking up to the spirit, Lucy tapped on him gently, only to get no reaction. After trying various ways to get him to wake up (much to Loke's amusement) she finally resorted to, like always, yelling at him.

And like always, it worked.

Thankfully.

"Hi, Grandpa Crux. I was wondering if you knew where Aquarius's key was dropped."

The old spirit smiled kindly at her.

"Of course I will check Mistress Lucy, but I have to keep inside the laws of the spirit realm. I may not be able to find the key."

Lucy nodded in acceptance with his answer, glancing quickly over to Loke to see that he was nodding to the other spirits words.

"If you could just try, it would be a great help."

_I have to get her back! _

_Please._

Crux closed his eyes and his head dipped, looking like he was sleeping although she knew better. At least she hoped he wasn't sleeping. It was a bit hard to tell sometimes. After waiting for around 5 minutes in companionable silence with her lion, Crux gave a start and jerked awake.

At his expression, her shoulders slumped and Loke put her arms around her, for once not trying to take advantage of the close contact.

The cross spirit sighed, knowing that she had already seen that he had been unable to answer her question. But he did manage to find something that could help her.

"Unfortunately, the location of Aquarius's key is outside of my knowledge. The spirit king is keeping it silent. However, I could find out where you could go to get the location."

Lucy looked up quickly at him, her eyes wide with a silent question, and even Loke looked confused at the loophole that Crux had found. The Celestial Spirit King usually did a better job at hiding things if he didn't want them to be found.

"The Library Of Sorcery. I presume you remember where that is from the eclipse incident?"

Lucy nodded, her eyes gleaming. "In the forest near the Blue Pegasus guild right?"

Not knowing what they were talking about, Loke scowled, confused. Every time he asked about the time when his memory loss happened, Lucy waved it off and made an excuse about it.

"I still don't know what you are talking about…" The most powerful member of the zodiac mumbled under his breath.

It was annoying.

Both the cross spirit and the celestial mage ignored the lion, instead discussing the quickest way there before Lucy thanked her oldest spirit and and closed his gate with a determined look, clutching the only key in her hand that she hadn't (couldn't) summon.

She _would_ get her friend back.

And woe beside anyone who got in her way.

* * *

A/N I know this is a well done trope but this is just something I'm doing for fun. Updates will be all over the place sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

Strength and Courage

**Chapter 2:**

A week later, Lucy was still in Magnolia. It wasn't her fault, however. If it was up to her, she would of already set out on her quest to find her oldest spirit.

Unfortunately, as her landlady had explained while yelling at her, just making your mind up one day to leave was not nearly enough time to get all the paper work done and get the deposit back on the apartment.

While this put a stop to her immediate plan to just head out and leave everything behind, Lucy had to admit that there were upsides to the situation.

Over the week, Lucy had started to sell all the expensive furniture that she had bought for her house. Although the Library Of Sorcery was relatively close by, Aquarius's new key could land anywhere in the world, and the extra money couldn't hurt.

The shoes and dresses she had bought and cherished had proved to be another thing that would have to go, and Lucy knew that if she was serious about this (and she was) then she had to give most of them up.

It physically hurt to see some of them sold, but it was worth for her friend.

She ended up bringing everything to a second hand dealer. The things she couldn't sell in time went to a charity shop on the corner where Gray had once told her he bought t-shirts from in bulk.

With her apartment much emptied than before, a bag packed full of clothes and other useful things, and her key chain and whip on her belt, Lucy knocked on her Landlady's apartment, intending to tell her that she had already wasted enough time as it is and beg her for her deposit.

As soon as she knocked on the door, however, the women opened it with a huff and beckoned her into the room.

"Bout time you showed up, Girlie. It wouldn't surprise me if you lost the nerve and stayed at home crying." She said with a scowled as she hustled Lucy into the room.

Lucy started to protest loudly at that, offended at the remark, when the old women hushed her crossly and walked into another room, leaving her awkwardly staring at the unfamiliar room.

It looked like a cross between Erza's house, with all manner of stuff on every surface, and her house, with the design (although seeing as she had come here to give the keys back and go, it wasn't her house anymore, not really).

The Landlady came back in with a bustle, scowling ferociously and Lucy suddenly wished that she had summed Loke or another spirit, but then relaxed as the Landlady gave her an envelope.

"Your deposit, although I've taken some out for damages. Your pink haired friend is a menace to society."

The old women than handed her a box, and said gruffly, "Your not the worst tenant I've ever had, and always apologised and at least tried to get your rent in on time, so here. For you travels."

The Landlady hesitated, then sighed.

"Best of luck. Now get out of my house!"

Scrambling to move after the annoyed yell that followed her out the door, Lucy shoved the box in her bag for later and walked out of her apartment block for the last time.

She'd miss it, miss the memories it held of her friends, but she had a mission to do.

The warmth of Loke's magic swirled up, comforting her and she grinned, her spirits (hah! Pun.) lifted.

Pulling out her key she summoned him. After all, what was a journey without some travel companions?

And she had lots of them.

"Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

In a burst of sparkles the leader of the zodiac appeared, grinning at his mistresses smiling face, a far outcry from the last time she had summoned him.

He smiled.

"Ready to go? I'll walk you to the train station."

"Yep. Got my deposit back from the old hag and everything. Today we leave Magnolia behind."

Loke sighed softly, looking at the busy streets they were passing through. "You okay with that? Like really okay, not pretend okay. I know this place has a lot of memories for you."

"Loke. I'm fine. This place does have a lot of good memories, but I want to make new ones, not live in the past. Plus, what about you? You joined the guild before me! Are you okay with this?"

Lucy stopped, looking worried, and Loke grinned.

"What a stupid question! You're my master, but more importantly, my friend. And so is Aquarius. I admit, it will be sad to say goodbye, but everyone that made this place home has already left. Of course I'm okay with this. I'll follow wherever you go."

He nodded to the key chain on her hip. "And I speak for all of us."

Lucy put her hand on her keys, whispering a thanks to them, and they heated up in response. She hadn't used them nearly as often this past month, but she was resolved to change that. After all, today seemed to be a day of new beginnings.

Approaching the ticket booth that they had arrived at after Loke's passionate speech, and ignoring her spirit flirting with a random girl that he had magically found, Lucy smiled at the cashier.

"Could I please have one ticket to Lavender?"

Lavender was the town Blue Pegasus was based in. From there she'd have to walk to the Library. Still, it was better than nothing.

The man at the counter grimaced, looking very done with life as he sighed.

"The train tracks were buried due to a stampede by a pack of griffins. They're always active this time of year, so trains from Lavender have been delayed a week. Come back later."

Lucy stared at him in stared at him in surprise, then annoyance.

"A week!? I can't wait a week! You could walk there in that time! I need to go now!"

The guy shrugged. "It is what it is. Do you wanna reserve your tickets ahead of time or-"

Lucy stomped away, walking out of the station, and Loke quickly caught up to her, abandoning the star struck girl he had been wooing.

"What's wrong?" he said with concern. "Were the tickets all sold out?"

The fight drained out of her as she turned to her spirit. "No. The track been damaged, and the trains have been delayed a week."

The lion spirit frowned. "But you could walk there in a week!"

"That's what I said!"

Loke nodded. "So what are we gonna do? Wait in a hotel or something?"

Lucy scowled and looked away to the busy street. "I don't want to. We've already waited enough time with the apartment. I just wanna start doing something to get her back."

A thought hit her and she stood up straighter. "What if we do walk there? It'd give me time to spend time with you guys and we could probably make the trip in three days if we hurry."

Loke looked thoughtful for a moment before grinning. "You're right. You always have the best idea's princess!"

"No flirting!" Lucy said with a smile. "Lets go find Aquarius! I want to get started."

Loke grinned. "Finally."


	3. Chapter 3

Strength and Courage

**Chapter Three:**

It was possible that Lucy had made a mistake.

One in particular, really.

"Princess? Are you sure you wish to continue on with those shoes? And those clothes? I would be happy to get some clothes from the spirit world for you."

"... That would be appreciated, Virgo. Thank you. This is the fifth time I've tripped on tree roots! Are they out to get me or something?!"

"Actually, I believe that it is more likely that you are wearing inappropriate attire for trekking through the wilderness than the forest is out to get you, Princess."

"Wow. Tell me what you really think, huh. Just go already."

"As you wish."

…

Everything ached. And Lucy means everything. She didn't even know some of those places could ache!

It could be her fault for starting on a difficult hike with only a mini skirt and and crop top, but they were cute and half priced, and she was weak.

Not to mention the high heeled boots that she usually wore, which now had become the bane of her existence as she fell over. _Again._

Despite her unfortunate wardrobe, Lucy felt that they had made decent time. Although walking was quite boring, it gave her the opportunity to get to know her spirits, and train herself to keep their gates open longer.

Although the process was slow, every extra minute that she keep their gates open, (most of the time she had two open to push herself faster) was one more step to recovering her old friend and getting stronger to protect the ones she loved.

She never wanted what happened to Aquarius to happen to anybody else ever again!

As for getting to know her spirits better, well…

That proved to be the best part of the whole experience, and only reinforced her love for them.

She had learnt so many things she hadn't known, or hadn't had the time to get to know.

It was pretty cool.

Lucy got to know them more as people who had interests and hobbies of their own, and she learnt so many things about them!

For example, before they got rudely interrupted by her arch nemesis, the roots and her traitorous shoes, Virgo had been telling her how she could cook almost anything and enjoyed it almost as much as getting punished, but hated anything to do with seafood.

("Really?"

"I'm sorry if this displeases you Princess, but it reminds me of cooking Cancer, and ever since my last master…well, he loved seafood."

"Oh- Right! Sorry, I didn't even realise. But I'd love to try some of your cooking someday."

"It would be my pleasure Princess. Feel free to punish me because of my incompetence."

"I think I'm ok. But thanks.")

And when she was talking with Taurus yesterday, he said that he liked to paint. Especially, he added with a grin, beautiful women.

("Have you painted me?"

"Of course! What do you take me for Miss Lucy? I wouldn't pass up the chance to paint those boobilious- I mean how pretty you are. Hehe. I was going to say that all along…"

"Sure you were. Anyway, I'd love to see one! Could you bring a painting next time?"

"Wait- You really want to see one?"

"Yes! Why wouldn't I?"

"I haven't shown one to anyone in- well, a long time. I"ll be sure to paint an extra special one for you and your body Miss Lucy!" )

In anycase, after three days of walking, the long turret of the Library Of Sorcery loomed in the distance, making Lucy's heart lighter than it felt in ages.

Moving away from the path into Lavender,

(She'd go into town and ask some of her spirits- maybe Loke and Virgo- what clothes would be good to walk through the harsh wilderness with later, because starting life as a rich heiress had to have a drawback at _some _point, as well as pick up supplies for wherever she was going next)

Lucy continued on towards the Library, with Capricorn reading poetry and Sagittarius randomly shooting tree's to "practice his aim" by her side.

Arriving at the Library, Lucy soon said goodbye to both of her spirits to save magic, and entered the small space that countered as an entrance. As she remembered, every space was taken up by books that stretched to the ceiling, perilously high, and flying books were hovering randomly in the air.

Although the space seemed- well, not small but a manageable amount, Lucy knew that there were many hidden corridors and rooms that they would have to search through to find a lead on Aquarius's location.

With a half-smile at the magic and all the books, (she was in a book lover paradise!) Lucy grabbed some of her keys of her belt. She had had a while to think about things on the way here, and she had come up with a way to speed the process up.

"Open, Gate of the Twins! Gemini!"

With a burst of colour, her resident transformation spirit appeared, dancing joyfully like always.

Together they chorused, "How can we help you, Lucy?"

Lucy grinned at them. "What's up guys? I was wondering if you could transform into a person for me."

"We'll try our best," said Gemi. "Who do you want us to copy?" added Mini.

Lucy smirked. "Jet, from team Shadow Gear. He has High Speed magic which allows him to increase his speed. It should help us search for any books or leads."

Gemi and Mini looked at each other before nodding.

"We're familiar with him. He's the oranged haired one, right?" Gemi said cheerfully.

"Not the fat one?" Mini giggled.

Lucy rolled her eyes at their antics before nodding. "Not the fat one. That's Droy."

Gemini grinned at the admission before quickly transforming in a flash of light, reappearing as a carbon copy of Levy's teammate.

"Could you guys start looking for anything to do with celestial spirits, and more importantly, Aquarius? I need to summon Grandpa Crux to see if he as any ideas or directions for what we are looking for."

"Sure thing Lucy," said Gemini, "We won't let you down."

They turned and raced off, going to the bottom bookcases, furthest away from the entrance to presumably start working their way back before moving on to other levels.

Lucy turned back to the job at hand after watching them superspeed their way through the first bookcase, and raised her oldest silver key.

"Open, Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!"

The old spirit soon appeared, this time not even appearing awake as he snoored happily.

Lucy sighed, having already predicted this would happen. "Grandpa Crux!"

… Nothing…

"Grandpa Crux!"

The old spirit started awake, and stared at Lucy in surprise.

"Is there anything I can do for you Mistress Lucy?" he said calmly.

"Yes actually. Do you have any advice on what we are looking for? Like a book or artefact…"

Crux hesitated, seemingly debating what to tell her before nodding. "I will have to clear it with the Celestial King. It is a serious matter, and will require jumping through a few loopholes as the Celestial bars any mortal from knowing where a golden key lands. I will try my best."

With that, the cross spirit disappeared, closing his own gate as Lucy frowned before shrugging and opening Virgo's gate. Hopefully the maid spirit would be able to help them look.

After she explained the situation, and Virgo gave her the clothes from the spirit world that she had promised (she quickly changed into them behind a bookshelf, and they were as awesome as she remembered-so soft!) Virgo started to work her way from the other side of the room, so that eventually she would meet Gemini in the middle.

… Or perhaps closer to her side, as Gemini had already made a lot of progress and already had a few books that looked interesting.

Lucy pulled out her Gale-force reading glasses and walked up to the ramp to the next level, leaving her spirits to scour the first floor.

Looking up at the ceiling once again, Lucy saw how many levels and floors there were, and sighed. It would take them a while to look through all these books, and with no helpful descriptions from Grandpa Crux (at least not yet) it would take even longer.

Perhaps even weeks.

Still, she wasn't going to give up.

In all honesty, Lucy also wanted to research the clothes and tattoo that she had gotten after Aquarius… got stuck in the spirit world.

After the battle, it had faded away, and she didn't want to ask any of her spirits until she knew for sure what it was.

She was pretty sure it was Aquarius's magic, as she had been doused _way_ to many times by her to not know the feeling of her magic, and of course,

It was water magic with her sign as a tattoo on her collarbone.

Kind of obvious.

But could she do it again? Or was it a one-time gift from the Spirit King? And if she could do it again, could she do it with her other spirits?

Before she got side-tracked thinking about other things, Lucy put on her Gale Force Glasses and picked up a book, ready and determined to find something to figure out where her friend was.

The quicker you started, she supposed, the quicker you finished.

* * *

**A/N Hi! Guess what I've been doing? Procrastinating for my exams by writing this! Yay! In any case, I wrote another chapter. It's funny, because I didn't think I would, but then my plot points for this story got deleted because my iPad crashed and burned, and I felt motivated for some reason XD.**

**Thank you all for reading this, it is basically my "when I'm bored story" (Or ignoring all my responsibilities...) Which means it should happen quite a lot...**

**Anyway, thank you to Dark Shining Light for reviewing and … guest! You know who you are. **

**I tried to make this chapter more about Lucy's relationship with her spirits. Next chapter (from what I can vaguely remember and infer) is when she finds the book! **

**Or does she?**

**I hope the spirits didn't seem to OC, I wanted to give more depth to their personalities, ya know? You rarely get to see Lucy call any of them except plue for non combat reasons.**

**See you... whenever I get inspiration lol.**


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